Starter or plenary activity on Order of Operations. Nine different expressions are given, without brackets. Students evaluate the expression as it stands, then have two or three target values that they make from the expression by adding brackets. First page is the student's questions, second is the answers. Suggest printing the questions on A5 for each student, then showing the answers on smartboard. Suitable for higher ability KS2, KS3, and KS4 lower ability students.

Power point slide demonstrating how the re-arrangement of triangles in a square proves Pythagoras' theorem. Add your own commentary.

A spreadsheet to show how to lay out and complete this method for multiplying two 3-digit numbers. Enter the numbers on the first sheet of the workbook, and subsequent sheets show each stage of the process.

A large (7 x 7 sheets of A4, landscape) display of what students need to do in each area (Shape/Number/Algebra etc) to achieve Level 3, 4, 5 etc. Each row is an area (Algebra/Shape/Data Handling etc), and each column is a level. Students can track their progress across the display and see what they need to do to progress to the next level. Good to point at when being observed or for OFSTED. I include a photo of the finished article as on my classroom wall, so you can see how it goes together. I got an artistic colleague to to the lettering.

Spreadsheet offering randomly generated questions on many topics, each sheet of questions with a corresponding anser sheet. The first sheet is a topic index: click on the topic to go to the question sheet. Topics include: addition; subtraction; multiplication; division; FDP; fractions; HCF; LCM; sequences; inequalities; BIDMAS; Mean Mode Median and range; standard form; ratio; index and indices; Mixed numbers; surds; brackets; factorisation; quadratics; conversions. Requires Excel 2007 or later. Some answer sheets are incomplete. Feel free to suggest other topics.

Three problems in isometric drawing: draw the fourth view of a 3d shape as it rotates through 90 degrees each time. Two copies printed on a sheet of A4, so print multiple copies of the first sheet and cut them in two. Second sheet shows the solutions. Possible use as a starter for higher ability, or plenary/extension for lower sets?

Six Higher Tier maths GCSE questions involving probability and algebra, and in particular combined probabilities without replacement leading to equations. Inspired by the infamous “Hannah’s Sweets” question, they require setting up and solving equations, some of them quadratics. The questions test knowledge of ratios as well as probabilities. Full worked solutions are included.

An interactive Excel spreadsheet that graphs the Binomial and Poisson distributions, with sliders to affect the probability for the Binomial, and lambda for the Poisson. The graphs update instantly so that you can see how the distributions change as the parameters change. Two further sheets overlays the normal distribution (with the relevant mean and standard deviation), showing how well the normal curve models these distributions. I suggest that it is shown via projector/SWB, and the teacher manipulates the slider to give students a more intuitive grasp of the distributions.

For pi day (14 March) here you can test how many digits of pi you know. I’m going to put this on my smartboard and allow students to come up and see how many digits they know, Contains the first 1000 decimal places, so hopefully will keep up with most students…

A memory-jogger for students who have recently covered basic trigonometry. How to determine whether to use Pythagoras, and how to use SOHCAHTOA. The sine and cosine rule are not included at this stage.